Customer Reviews

Mozart: Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 [Hybrid SACD with CD-ROM track of Mozart's Original Manuscript]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First, this SACD is has the best sound of any recording I have ever heard, ever. The multitrack SACD sound somehow turns my living room furniture into a symphony orchestra and chorus. Unfortunately, many SACDs are derived from 24 bit PCM digital recordings, and dilute the SACD brand with inferior sound. This recording, on the other hand, is a triumphant vindication of the new SACD format.

The performance itself is unusual. There are many moments that give me goosebumps, which is my ultimate compliment. It does not produce the "wall of sound" effect on the tutti sections that many other performances of the Mozart Requiem do. This is something I do miss from this performance. Instead, it has a more open texture, with stunning crescendos that rapidly clear, revealing fine details of orchestration. Instead of tense, wound-up tuttis, the fortissimo sections are more like storms that suddenly drench the listener with overwhelming force. The open texture of the performance gives it a more liturgical than symphony sensibility, and as a consequence creates an ethereal ambience of great pathos. One comes away from the performance feeling very mournful and exposed to the deeper realities of human existence.

This reviewer has little basis for the scholarly comparison provided by other authors, but I write for the buyer who - like me - may not know anything about classical music, but can still appreciate aesthetic beauty and high quality recordings. When I purchased this disc, I was simply looking for my first copy of Mozart's Requiem, and preferably, one equipped for playback in my SACD player. I have been very, very pleased. I find the performances here to be powerful and exciting, and the recording itself to be nothing short of an amazing sonic experience (with the right equipment, of course). I find the CD (which includes a copy of Mozart's score) and the materials that come with it to be particularly interesting, and I strongly encourage those of less than high-brow appetites - like me - to pick up a copy for serious listening.

It's hard to avoid superlatives when describing this recording. The orchestra, the choir, and the soloists are fantastic, but Harnoncourt is the star (along with Mozart, of course). His conducting is precise, deliberate, and relentless- and the dark emotion of this piece is revealed as I've never heard it before. This is without a doubt the best performance of this work I've heard, and I've been around quite awhile!

The other stars of the recording are Harmonia Mundi's recording engineers- the miking and recording is superb- this is the best SACD I've heard so far. This is one beautiful recording job.

I have only a few SACDs, but I have close to 1000 CDs, and this is certainly one of the top handful, perhaps even the best.

Run, do not walk, to your nearest keyboard to order this recording- I promise you will NOT regret it.

Happy listening!

This could have been a very very good CD. I love the raw visceral quality that permeates the entire recording. Even the Tuba Mirum, despite being burdened by a frequently out of breath soloist, has orchestral playing that's so transcendentally pure that the failings of the voice parts are made all the more unforgivable. While on the whole it captures the spirit of the requiem superbly it's let down by some decidedly inferior choir direction and occasional imbalance between choir and orchester. When it comes to the singing, the con-fu-ta-tis is simply of-fen-sive. On the whole, though occasionally breath-taking (Dies Irae, for example), fails where it matters (Kyrie, for example), and fails miserably. This CD has so much promise. After the wonderful opening, I really wanted to fall in love with this CD. A part of me wants to give it 4 stars due to the incredible orchestral playing and direction but the failings of the choir are simply un-for-give-a-ble and so I grudgingly give it 3 stars.

Frankly, despite it's failings, I recommend that you buy it anyway. It has enough unique brilliance to justify it's place in any collection.

As a performer, I listened in awe at this recording. I didn't expect to hear the colors and clarity I heard in this particular performance. As a trombonist I was utterly refreshed by the interpretation of the Tuba Mirum solo. Buy this recording - even if you own several others.

(Certain cd players have difficulty playing this multi-layered hybrid SACD, but that goes for all the hybrids I own.)

Who needs another recording of Mozart's Requiem? This latest Harnoncourt recording, however, is a great one. He uses the Beyer edition of the Requiem which doesn't totally scrap Sussmayer's efforts, but rather "cleans them up." Beyer's ranks along with the H.C. Robbins Landon's and Robert Levin's editions, when considering what sounds most like Mozart. One minor quibble however, is that while Beyer recognizes that each section of the Requiem concludes with a Fuge (the Kyrie, Quam olim Abrahe, Osanna, and Cum Sanctis Tuis) he does not attempt a realization of the roughly sketched Amen fugue to conclude the second section, the Sequenz. I feel it would have made his edition a little better, but he still achieves 5/5 stars in my book.

The soloists are all first rate and beyond any criticism. I especially admire the balance between the bass soloist and tenor trombone in the Tuba Mirum. It is the first Tuba Mirum to really move me.

Harnoncourt conducts clearly and his rapid crescendi and decrescendi keep this recording dramatic and interesting. The Kyrie fugue is neither too rushed nor too slow, and is my favorite reading of this fugue to date. The chorus is clear and strong enough, in my opinion. The one con in my listening to Harnoncourt's recording, however, is the unusally fast tempo that he takes the Hostias, but it is easy to let-go considering the Beyer's awesome reworking and Harnoncourt's crystal clear treatment of the Quam olim Abrahe fugue.

I believe this is as close to perfection as recordings of Mozart's Requiem can get. Harnoncourt is great, and he has totally outdone himself here, and he deserves praise for it. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi provides great sound quality and the enhanced CD-Rom allows listeners to also take a look at the original score of the Requiem and the attempted completions by Mozart's students Freystadtler (Kyrie) and Eybler (Sequenz).

While it is not perfect (what recording of the Requiem is?), there is still so much good conducting and completion of the score that the pros overshadow the cons. This is NOT a recording that should be missed by anyone who loves Mozart's Requiem Mass.

This is by all means a very interesting performance - first off, it uses a new critical edition of the score, and thus there are in fact some noticeable changes in the music and orchestration from other performances. The performance itself is quite impressive. As others have stated, it is very clear - all the parts are quite audible (thanks in no small part to the excellent SACD recording), and immaculately performed. It is dryer than I personally prefer, but this does allow you to really hear the lines. I cannot say that this is a favourite performance though - it does not replace my preferred recordings.
Harnoncourt's approach is fresh, but very much in his style of doing things - and that will either be good or bad depending on your personal preferences.

In my view, in a scholarly sense this recording is a triumph and should be heard by any who have interest in the work. As a purely musical experience, others have plumbed the depths of this music much more thoroughly and effectively.

The inclusion of Mozart's manuscript score as a cd-rom feature is a very nice addition - one that should become more common in my opinion.

My ultimate rating is really somewhere in between 3 and 4 stars for the reasons that I have discussed.

Excellent recording via the conventional CD. I have enjoyed it thoroughly.

I purchased this recording to try out my new SACD equipped system. I recently got it all properly set up, and I truly noticed a difference between CD and SACD. The difference is best described as a greater purity and fullness of sound. I hear it particularly with the human voice and the violins. They both come through in a way that is unbelievable.

Also, this is a 5.1 multichannel SACD recording, so it is the real deal. Some SACDs are just 2 or 3 channel, which is still good, but not as good.

The downside is that your conventional CDs may sound a little dull, once you give this a try.

A Requiem usually implies rest and peace. Not this one. The opening bars, which can be a soothing lullabye in other renditions, are anything but here. Throughout, where appropriate, accelerando and crescendo, note by note, not even phrase by phrase, add a sense of halting, building urgency and fear, and of great sadness. Separate voice parts are heard for the first time as if they are crying out. Here the PERFORMERS sound scared!

One can wonder if this is what Mozart intended - I think not, based on other work; it just doesn't sound like his markings. The written notes can't always support the Harnoncourtian markings. This is like an original Merchant and Ivory movie script directed by John Carpenter: the characters are all there, but suffused with a sense of terror. Room With a View meets The Fog; Requiem for a Blade Runner.

Still, it is a revelation, and probably a must-hear. You're not likely to hear your other versions the same way again, even if you want to shoot the conductor for this one.

***

An interesting curiosity - the recording levels were left up between many of the movements. Instead of the usual "dead air", you can hear the musicians and singers shifting their weight, readying their instruments or taking that next deep breath. Even after the last note the "tape" keeps running. It all lends an immediacy, a humanness, a naturalness to the whole recording. (This was, according to the liner notes, recorded live over a few days in 2003).

Harnoncourt has a long history of troulbing ideas that either thrill or disturb the listener. This is particularly true in his Mozart recordings, where Harnoncourt almost recomposes the music to make it sound drastic, conflicted, and turbulent. Is this a modernist breakthrough or an insult to Mozart's serene genius? In this live 2003 recording of the Requiem, I think Harnoncourt's intervention, which is as extreme as ever, justifies itself. Every section, virtually every bar, is phrased and shaped in new, incisive ways that wake up the listener's ears.

To Harnoncourt, the Requiem displays Mozart in transition, groping for a more succint yet 'catchy' style. His conducting is certainly succinct--phrases gasp and stagger, almost lurching along. To overcome the blandness of Sussmayr's much-maligned completion, Harnoncourt extends Mozart's intentions, giving each section a contrasting personality, almost as if we are hearing scenes from an unstaged opera of the soul's struggle. Being himself such an imaginative musician, Harnoncourt's stylistic notions are often brilliant and always effective. You'll never mistake the Requiem for a familiar, comfortable church piece again.

As to the performers, I admire the period excellence of Harnoncourt's own Concentus MusicuS Wien, the ensemble he first made his name with. The porfessional Arnold Schoenberg Choir is a revelation in their ability to sing with the flexible expression of a single voice. In the vocal quartet, the standouts are bass Gerald Finley and soprano Christine Schafer, but the whole group sings with alertness and conviction.

I would rank this new CD as the top Mozart Requiem I've heard, albeit I will still return to its exact opposite, the monumentally Romantic version under Bruno Walter on Sony.